LSWA's June 2012 Meeting

Woodturning Hands-On Mini-Retreat“Turning an Ice Cream Scoop”

Welcome to all of our new club members and guests! Our June 23rd, 2012 club meeting will be held at the Woodcraft Store located at 60 FM 1960 West, Houston, TX 77090 Phone: 281-880-0045 starting promptly at 8:30 a.m.

This month’s meeting will feature our third hands-on mini-retreat. This year we will be turning a stainless steel Ice Cream Scoop for your kitchen. This is a great project for you to continue the refinement of your spindle turning skills. In addition, you will walk away with a handy ice cream scoop to help you satisfy that sweet tooth!

The cost to attend this hands-on woodturning retreat is only $20.00 per person. This helps to cover the cost of the ice cream scoop project kit, the wooden project blank and miscellaneous things like abrasives and finishes. As always, the club will be providing pizza and sodas to all attendees for lunch. A free will offering will be collected to help offset the cost of lunch. Please bring correct change with you, as we will be collecting your $20.00 registration fee at the door.

Note: Please bring 1) a face shield and 2) a dust mask or respirator and 3) any tools that you wish to use to complete your project. There will be a limited number of turning tools at the event (Woodcraft’s), but you should bring a few of your tools or other special items to make certain you have what you need. Please mark your name on each tool (tape and a black marker work well) that you bring.

We will be finish sanding the projects this year… To reduce airborne dust, portable shop vacuums will be available for your lathe when you need to sand your project. Your lathe instructor will assist you when sanding to ensure we capture as much sanding dust as possible. However, you will still need to wear a dust mask or respirator when sanding, just like you do in your studio when sanding projects on the lathe.

When you leave the retreat, your ice cream scoop will be ready to scoop up your favorite ice cream. My favorite ice cream is chocolate! Is there really any other flavor? We will take a poll at the event to see what flavors our club members prefer!

This will be a great project for you to practice beads, coves and use of a skew chisel, roughing gouge, or spindle gouge. Mastering these types of woodturning tools will help you to gain confidence when working with other types of tools and projects, like faceplate turnings.

There will be experienced instructors at each lathe during the retreat (Pete Allen, Gary Barnes, Bill Goff, Brian Greb), to help you as you are turning your scoop. I will also be floating from lathe to lathe as needed and manning the tool sharpening station. Club members who are not actively turning are encouraged to watch and learn how other members turn their projects.

You can also feel free to browse the aisles in Woodcraft to stock up on tools and supplies for your next project. Remember, Woodcraft offers a 10% discount to all LSWA club members (some restrictions/exclusions apply, see a Woodcraft employee for complete details).

June 23 Mini Retreat Agenda

This month’s meeting will not feature our normal meeting agenda due to the retreat, please see this month’s agenda for details. Note: Please hold your Show and Tell turnings until next month. There will be 3 – 4 lathes working simultaneously at the retreat and a maximum of 12 – 14 turning slots. Rotations are first come, first served.

8:30 - 9:00 a.m.

Coffee, Snacks and Fellowship - Club Library will be open during fellowship period

9:00 - 9:05 a.m.

Welcome and Administrative Announcements - Steve Russell

9:05 - 10:00 a.m.

First Turning Rotation

10:05 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Second Turning Rotation

11:05 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Third Turning Rotation

12:00 - 12:45 p.m.

Lunch (pizza and sodas) will be provided by the club. A free will offering will be collected to help offset the lunch cost. We will also hold our raffle during lunch.

12:45 - 1:40 p.m.

Fourth and Final Turning Rotation

1:40 - 2:00 p.m.

Closing Remarks and Clean up of Room. All members are required to help clean up after the event - no exceptions!

Lunch Raffle: We have some great prizes for our raffle this year including:

1) A brand new 1-HP portable dust collector plus four spare collection bags, donated by our very own Brian Greb.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me (Steve) at 713-826-0046 cell. I'm looking forward to seeing you all at our Woodcraft mini retreat. Take care and best wishes to you and yours!